Mohamed Siad Barre, also spelledMaxamed Siyaad Barre (born c. 1919, Ganane, Italian Somaliland—died Jan. 2, 1995, Lagos, Nigeria) president of Somalia who held dictatorial rule over the country from October 1969, when he led a bloodless military coup against the elected government, until January 1991, when he was overthrown in a bloody civil war.

Siad was born about 1919 (or earlier) into a nomadic family in the small Marehan clan of the Daarood clan group in Italian Somaliland. He joined the Somali police force after the British took control of the country in 1941 and rose to the post of chief inspector. When Somalia was returned to Italian sovereignty in 1950, Siad was sent to the military academy in Italy. He transferred to the Somali national army when it was formed (1960), and by 1966 he held the rank of major general and had become commander in chief. After seizing power on Oct. 22, 1969, Siad made himself head of a Supreme Revolutionary Council and imposed autocratic rule through a personality cult and the harsh enforcement of an official ideology called "Scientific Socialism." He strengthened relations with the Soviet Union, officially outlawed clan loyalties (while using clan elders to establish order in rural areas), and promoted literacy with a newly introduced Roman alphabet. He later renounced his ties with the Soviets and sought U.S. aid, but allegations of human rights abuses hurt his international standing. By 1990 fighting among clans and between clan militias and the government forced Siad to promise reforms, including free elections. He was forced out of office in January 1991 and in 1992 went into exile in Nigeria.

Learn More in these related articles:

The Somalian president, Maxamed Siyaad Barre, was able to muster 35,000 regulars and 15,000 fighters of the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF). His forces began infiltrating into the Ogaden in May–June 1977, and overt warfare began in July. By September 1977 Mogadishu controlled 90 percent of the Ogaden and had followed retreating Ethiopian forces into non-Somali regions of Harerge,...

in Somalia

The overthrow of Cigaal brought to power as head of state and president of a new Supreme Revolutionary Council the commander of the army, Maj. Gen. Mohamed Siad Barre (Maxamed Siyaad Barre). At first the new regime concentrated on consolidating its power internally. Siad quickly adopted “Scientific Socialism,” which, he claimed, was fully compatible with his countrymen’s traditional...

About three-fifths of Somalia’s economy is based on agriculture; however, the main economic activity is not crop farming but livestock raising. Between 1969 and the early 1980s, Mohamed Siad Barre’s military government imposed a system of “Scientific Socialism,” which was characterized by the nationalization of banks, insurance firms, oil companies, and large industrial firms; the...